July was always a great time for me to grab a week of vacation and spend a good amount of time preparing for the fall ministry. My goal as a small group pastor each year was to continue focusing on a balanced ministry, but also to pick one area of the ministry to work on improving during the next year. Recently, a client and friend who works in the area of organizational improvement for Microsoft shared with me the maxim:

“You can’t improve what you can’t manage. And you can’t manage what you can’t measure”

So, here’s the question: what do you want to improve in your ministry? Is it health of the groups? Growth? Prayer? Time in the word? Leadership development? Missional activities? Outreach?

How are you going to manage and measure to evaluate improvement?

As you think about these questions, please keep us in mind. We have uniquely designed Churchteams to collect the information you need to measure and improve your ministry.

We haven’t mastered this by any means, but we are definitely moving the ball ahead on it. We have a solid way in place now to collect, measure and manage the health of individual small groups. If you’re not sure how, meet me on a webinar.

Growthfinder can survey to help with other measures, but we’re also trying to learn how to measure other things like prayer and service through normal usage of the tool.

Why improve? To win the prize of our calling.But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. (Phil 3:13-15)